Introduction What is the relationship between clinical myopia resulting from intensive reading and experimental myopia resulting from animals wearing spectacle lenses? Method We review several experiments on lens-compensation. Chicks wore either: (a) negative or positive lenses for brief intervals several times per day, otherwise in darkness, (b) positive lenses for brief intervals, otherwise in a normal lighted cage, (c) negative and positive lenses alternately, (d) positive lenses together with light diffusers. Refractive error and axial dimensions were measured before and after lens-wear. Results First, the temporal pattern of lens-wear is an important determinant of how much compensation occurred. Furthermore, the ocular length and choroidal responses can be independent with different patterns of lens-wear or when light diffusers are combined with lenses. Most significantly, even short periods of positive-lens-wear can promote compensation, despite normal vision the rest of the day, or even if the objects seen are too distant to be focused clearly. Conclusions Positive lenses exert their effect by imposing myopic defocus, not by increasing sharp vision. Therefore, encouraging periods of myopic defocus in children to offset the periods of hyperopic defocus during reading might prove a useful prophylaxis against myopia. For decades before experimental studies of myopia in animals lent some credibility to the notion that visual conditions led to myopia, an eccentric minority held the view that the presence of hyperopic defocus (or the ocular accommodation that it stimulated) during reading led to ocular elongation and myopia ("school myopia"). For this reason they held that it was desirable to avoid optically correcting myopia in children because the correction restored the hyperopic defocus that was the problem in the first place. This view of myopia as a iatrogenic condition has been asserted, dismissed, but never seriously tested, probably in part because of ethical considerations. In recent years, it has become clear that chicks and monkeys can compensate for the defocus imposed by spectacle lenses (1, 3, 6). For example, if hyperopic defocus is imposed by negative lenses, myopia develops, which compensates for the imposed hyperopia. Might this compensation for imposed defocus be a model for school myopia? Reading is an activity that is unusual in that it causes long periods of steady hyperopic defocus (as a result of the output of ocular accommodation being less than what the visual input demands). Furthermore, reading seems the most plausible environmental component of education that might account for the high incidence of myopia among university students in many countries (8, 12). It is puzzling, in view of this strong epidemiological association, that studies attempting to relate the amount of reading and other near work in individual children to myopic progression have yielded rather weak associations (11). We take this as suggesting that it is not the total time spent on reading that is the relevant variable, but something else about the pattern of reading that has not yet been identified. We have studied compensation for lenses in chicks under several visual conditions. We measured both refractive error and two anatomical components: the total length of the eye and the thickness of the choroid, both of which contribute to the position of the retina with respect to the retinal image. Both of these components contribute to the compensation for spectacle lenses in both chicks and monkeys (2, 9). We have found that if chicks wear lenses for several episodes during the day, the duration of each episode and the periods between the episodes is as important as the total number of minutes of lens-wear (10). Furthermore, the same pattern that caused compensation for positive lenses did not cause compensation for negative lenses. Even more surprising, the effects on the two anatomical components that contribute to compensation differed. For example, even very brief periods of positive lens-wear caused the ocular elongation to be reduced almost as much as by continuous lens-wear, but the same periods of lens-wear did not cause choroidal expansion. One would be tempted to conclude that the ocular elongation mechanism is more sensitive than the choroid and simply needs less "stimulation," except that with negative lenses the situation is reversed: long periods of lens-wear are required to affect the ocular elongation. These results imply that the retina must send several different signals that modulate refractive status. This notion of separate retinal signals for modulating different ocular components is also supported by our finding that superimposing mild diffusers over positive lenses had no effect on the inhibition of ocular elongation, but reduced the choroidal expansion that normally accompanies it. These findings that different temporal conditions modulate the effects of wearing positive and negative lenses successively led us to raise chicks alternately wearing positive and negative lenses for brief periods (being in darkness the rest of the time). To our surprise, the two lenses did not cancel out each other's effects; instead, the effect of the positive lens dominated, even if it was worn one-fifth as much as the negative lens. This could be seen as further evidence of there being separate signals for the two directions of lens compensation. These results led us to try an experiment which had a more astonishing outcome: We raised chicks under normal lighting without lenses, except that every two hours we put positive lenses on for two minutes. This small amount of time wearing positive lenses caused the eyes to grow in the compensatory direction (toward hyperopia). We conclude from this experiment that the eye must be responding to the myopic defocus produced by the positive lens. The alternative possibility—that the lens acts by increasing the amount of sharply focused images—seems implausible. It is likely that the animal gets much more sharp vision from normal experience, either by viewing distant objects without accommodation or by viewing near objects with accommodation (chicks have 20 D of accommodation), than it does by wearing positive lenses a few minutes a day. Furthermore, we have found, as have Schaeffel and Dieter (5), that chicks compensate for positive lenses even if they wear them when centered in a drum with the walls too far away to be in focus. Finally, if we raise a chick with positive lenses over both eyes and add a light diffuser to one eye, that eye shows a stronger inhibition of ocular elongation, despite experiencing less sharp vision, than does the eye without the diffuser. This is quite incompatible with the claim that the response to positive lenses results from the enhanced sharpness of the vision. (The probable explanation for the stronger ocular length inhibition is that the diffuser reduces the choroidal response, leaving more defocus for the ocular elongation to compensate for.) These results imply that brief periods of myopic defocus have much more powerful effects than do similar periods of hyperopic defocus. However, we expect that only within a certain range is myopic defocus so effective. In mammals, the range of myopic defocus that is effective in producing lens compensation is quite narrow (7). Even in chickens, large amounts of myopic defocus can result in form-deprivation myopia, rather than growth away from myopia (4). If the amount of myopic defocus determines the direction of compensation in chicks alternately wearing positive and negative lenses, it seems possible that what determines whether a human eye becomes myopic during long periods of reading is not so much the presence of hyperopic defocus, as the absence of any significant amount of myopic defocus. This distinguishes reading from more natural kinds of close work. For example, when examining a small object held in ones hand or threading a needle, the slight hyperopic defocus caused by the insufficiency of accommodation is accompanied by massive myopic defocus of everything behind the object of regard. Thus our results suggest a new basis for visual prophylaxis for myopia—encouragement of myopic defocus. If our reasoning is correct, the old saw that reading at close distances may be especially myopigenic might be true neither because of the degree of hyperopic defocus nor because of the amount of accommodative stimulus, but, instead, because reading at close distances reduces the world beyond the page, which would be myopically defocused. Perhaps smaller books would help.


Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) based thermoplastics are common, particularly in packaging. Due to both thermal and hydrolytic degradation, recycled PET (rPET) shows poor mechanical properties. The effect of adding 30% polycarbonate (PC) and chain extender (CE) on mechanical, thermal and morphological properties was investigated. rPET with PC and CE was melt blended in a single screw extruder, which was then tensile test specimens were formed by injection molding rPET and PC compatibility was improved via chain extending reactions which in turn improved the rPET and PC blend mechanical properties. With the addition of 30%PC the tensile modulus of rPET increased by 18% and it increased by 223% when 2%CE was added to rPET and 30%PC blends. Also, the CE reaction affected crystallization, monitored by differential scanning calorimetry: the melting enthalpy ofblends was lowered by increased CE content.


The invention discloses epoxy anti-corrosive paint used for underwater concrete. Liquid epoxy resin DER351 is used as a base material; polysulfide rubber is used as a flexibilizer; pentanediol diglycidyl ether 6286 is used as a diluent; zinc phosphate and iron oxide red are used as active anti-corrosive pigment; spherical silicon carbide, ceramic microspheres, mica iron oxide, sericite and precipitate vitriolic barium are used as fillings; cashew shell oil, modified phenolic aldehyde amine and modified aliphatic amine are used as curing agents; and a silane coupling agent 1121 is used as an adhesion promoter. With the cooperation of functional promoters, the raw materials are made into solvent-free double-component epoxy anti-corrosive paint used for underwater concrete through conventional preparation technique equipment. The epoxy anti-corrosive paint used for underwater concrete is highly environmental-friendly and can be directly painted or smeared on damp interfaces of underwater concrete and rapidly solidified into films; the coating has great adhesion and strong abrasion resistance and corrosion prevention. The epoxy anti-corrosive paint used for underwater concrete is widely applied to the corrosion prevention of various underwater concrete facilities.


The Soviet press has come through another exciting year. Characterized by a greater tendency on the part of editors to criticize flaws in the national program, the skillful handling of an international espionage trial, and an enormous increase of readers, the Russian newspapers more than kept up with the progress in U. S. S. R. Americans in Moscow, especially those who come in contact with Soviet journalists, are apt to talk patronizingly of propaganda in the Russian newspapers. To the casual visitor, all the news in the papers bears the taint of this phrase. The Russians, on the other hand, feel that it is the foreign press which contains propaganda, not their own. To them it is a shading of news, colored for a vicious end. This happens frequently abroad, where the newspapers are owned by individuals, who stand to gain personally by exploiting some particular view. But in the U. S. S. R., where the newspapers are organs of different industries or units, there is no necessity for concealing the source, or coloring the news. In the infancy of the Soviet newspapers, the editor often feared to expose practices detrimental to the progress of his industry. Unacquainted with the freedom to criticize, he allowed errors in management to go by, without correction, swayed by a distaste to reveal the rottenness in his particular field. In the past year, particularly, the newspapers have taken upon themselves the task of criticism. Where there is any > slackness, inefficiency, or where there are means of improving production, the editor makes it his business to acquaint the workers with it through the columns of the newspaper. Letters from workers, criticizing or offering suggestions for bettering production, form an important part of the newspaper's contents.


The compensation systems in private banking need to be aligned with the competitive strategy and consistent with organizational structure. Basing on a survey conducted in partnership with the Italian Association of Private Banks, the paper analyses the links between performance indicators and pay-for-performance incentives, on one hand, and between performance indicators and strategy, on the other hand. The results disclose the areas where it is recommended to improve the compensation systems currently used


IN any study of the religious beliefs and ceremonials of savage or semi-civilized peoples, either special or comparative, the shaman stands easily as one of the foremost figures. On almost every side of their religious life his influence makes itself felt, and his importance reaches out beyond the limits of religion into the domain of social life and organization and governmental control. By some the term shaman is confined, and perhaps rightly, within somewhat narrow limits; if I may be pardoned the liberty, I shall here extend rather than restrict the meaning of the term, and shall use it as applying to that motley class of persons, found in every savage community, who are supposed to have closer relations with the supernatural than other men, and who, according as they use the advantages of their position in one way or another, are the progenitors alike of the physician and the sorcerer, the prophet, the teacher, and the priest. Although fundamentally the shaman is everywhere much alike, yet there are not inconsiderable differences apparent, both in his character and position. In discussing certain aspects of the shaman as he is found in America, we may, for the purposes of convenience, regard him from several points of view. He may be considered, first, in the making, the predisposing character and circumstances, the indications of approaching shamanhood, the sources of his power, and his preparation and training to become a full-fledged shaman. We may regard, also, the functions of the shaman, which are often various, and the method he employs in his profession. There is, further, the question of the organization of the shamans within the community, their position, and the influences which they exert, both as individuals and as a class. One of the broadest distinctions which may be made, in connection with the making of shamans, is that of sex, whether the practice of shamanism is open freely to both sexes, or is more or less restricted to


To investigate and analyze the vegetational structure, thirty sites were sampled with clumped sampling method and seventeen belt transects were sampled to analyze the vegetational change during 8 years(from 1978 to 1986)at the Namsan Nature Park in Seoul. Robinia pseudoacacia community of actual vegetation covered 29.39% Quercus mongolica community 21.25% and Pinus densiflora community 17.58% of the Mt. Namsan forest. The degree of human disturbance of vegetation of 8, 7 and 6 area covered 43.2%, 7.8% and 30.8% respectively. The Quercus mongolica community at the northern slope and R. pseudoacacia communitu at the edge zone will keep their present structure. And P. densiflora community at the eastern and southern slope shall be succeeded to deciduous trees such as Q. mongolica. As to changes of plant community structure during 8 years, density of understory species, species diversity and Raunkiaer`s frequency class A and E showed an increase and vegetation structure was developed to unification.


A practical model for estimating target strength of gas‐filled swimbladdered fish is described using the scattering function of a finite cylinder. Two equivalent cylinders are derived from measurements of swimbladder length, surface area, and volume. The scattering functions of both equivalent cylinders were tested using data available for gadoids, then applied in the estimation of target strength of deep‐water hoki (Macruronus novaezelandie). Molds of 23 hoki swimbladders were constructed for measurements of their internal dimensions. Estimates of target strength using the scattering function of the equivalent surface area cylinder agree closely with estimates by other methods for gadoids. Estimates using the scattering function of the equivalent volume cylinder are lower, but approach the former estimates when the swimbladders are fully inflated. The advantage of using the latter method is the simplicity in measuring the swimbladder volume. The dorsal aspect target strength of hoki were estimated at fou...


Wei Fang Jiangxi University of Technology Abstract—With the development of society, the importance of ideological and political education has become increasingly obvious, and countries all over the world have paid much attention to ideological and political education, during which the methods of ideological and political education are of the same important role. Therefore, the key factor of improving practical effect of ideological and political education is to choose correct and proper educational methods since appropriate methods are the important conditions to realize educational goals, which can ensure the educational effect effectively. In this paper, several common educational methods are adopted as the basis to compare the representative methods of ideological and political education home and abroad. By comparing and studying the differences of Chinese-Western ideological and political educational methods, we can have a deep understanding of overseas ideological and political educational methods so as to promote the development and perfection of ideological and political educational methods in our country, which can provide new ideas for the innovation of ideological and political education with constant improvement and innovation.


Persistent memory (PM) can play an important role in storing the edge data of IoT devices, but their capacities are restrained by the embedded system, which only provides the limited host space and energy resource. Therefore, a deduplication system is required to improve the PM utilization and energy consumption. According to our observations, the current inline deduplication algorithms incur nonnegligible latency when applied to the PM file systems (PMFSs), mainly because (i) the low tolerance to the extra deduplication I/O path, (ii) the long fingerprint calculation, and (iii) the unnecessary duplication detection when writing content with low duplication ratio. To improve this issue, we propose LO‐Dedup, a novel and low‐overhead deduplication system for PM. LO‐Dedup adopts PM‐friendly design, both in fine‐grained data load/store and fast hash scheme to reduce overhead. Moreover, LO‐Dedup can adaptively sample duplication detection according to the recent contents. We implement a prototype of LO‐Dedup in PMFS, which is a well‐known PMFS. The experimental results show that the write performance only has a slight drop when writing data and saves up to 45% space in PMFS.


Cardiac surgery in very elderly patients, especially in nonagenarians, has been a controversial issue ofits relative risk, benefits and long-term survival.A 91-year-old woman was referred to our institution for an acute anterior myocardial infarction.Emergency coronary intervention was conducted and the occluded left anterior descending artery wassuccessfully revascularized with a bare metal stent. Soon after reperfusion, her hemodynamics significantlycollapsed and the subsequent left ventriculography revealed a large shunt to the right ventricle.Considering her self-sufficient daily life and the family's wishes, emergency surgical repair of anteriorventricular septal rupture was performed by infarct exclusion method using 2-patch technique.The patient recovered uneventfully and was discharged on postoperative day 24.


It is well known that variable pitch cutters may improve stability of a given milling operation. Several methods are known for tuning the consecutive pitch angles to approach idealistic phase shift on regeneration. Most of the tuning procedures are based on the measurement of the chatter frequency. However, these design procedures completely disregard the effect of the harmonics of the milling process. In this study, the efficiency of these methods is verified in milling for an interrupted cutting engagement. The critical analysis of different tuning methodologies are carried out by means of accurate stability charts constructed with semi-discretization. It is shown that the effectiveness of tuning can be improved further with numerical optimization techniques.


all know the value of cytopathology in providing optimal patient care. However, thecytopathology profession must continually convince other professionals as well as the government of thevalueofcytopathologytestingcomparedwithothermedicalservices.Wearepaidforourservicesbyprop-erly assigning the correct Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code(s) to each cytology report. Tobriefly review the process, CPT codes are maintained by the American Medical Association (AMA) CPTEditorial Panel; advisors from multiple pathology organizations have opportunity for comment as a coderevision or request for a new code is brought to the Panel.


Carbon emissions research based on regional perspective is necessary and helpful for China to achieve its reduction targets. This research aims at analyzing the energy-related carbon emissions and finding out the most important driving forces for the carbon emissions increments in Guangdong province. LMDI (Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index) method based on the extended Kaya identity has been used to explore the main driving factors for energy-related carbon emissions in Guangdong province annually between 1990 and 2014. Research results show that the impacts and influences of various factors on carbon emissions are different in the different development stages. Economic growth effect and population size effect are the two most important driving factors for the increased carbon emissions. Energy intensity effect played the dominant role in curbing carbon emissions. Energy structure effect and technical progress effect had different but relatively minor effects on carbon emissions during the five different development stages.


To probe the effect of glutamine and GABA on metabolism of [U‐13C]glutamate, cerebellar astrocytes were incubated with [U‐13C]glutamate (0.5 mM) in the presence and absence of glutamine (2.5 mM) or GABA (0.2 mM). It could be shown that consumption of [U‐13C]glutamate was decreased in the presence of glutamine and release of labeled aspartate and [1,2,3‐13C]glutamate decreased as well, whereas the concentrations of these metabolites increased inside the cells. Glutamine decreased energy production from [U‐13C]glutamate presumably by substituting for glutamate as an energy substrate. No additional effect was seen in the presence of both glutamine and GABA. When cerebellar granule neurons were incubated with [U‐13C]glutamate (0.25 mM) and GABA (0.05 mM), less [U‐13C]glutamate was used for energy production than in controls. Because the barbiturate thiopental did not elicit such response (Qu et al., 2000, Neurochem Int 37:207–215) it appears that GABA also has a metabolic function in the glutamatergic cerebellar granule neurons in contrast to the astrocytes. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


In many practical situations, it is desired to compare several populations, nd the best one and estimate some parametric functions associated with the selected population. This has been recognized as an important problem that arises in various applications in agricultural, industrial and medical studies. This paper concerns unbiased estimation of a general parametric function, say ( ), of selected populations under the squared error loss (SEL) function. Examples of () include reliability function, odds ratio and variance, among others. Also, we obtain the uniformly minimum risk unbiased estimators of the parameters of selected populations under some general class of loss functions other than the commonly used SEL function. Furthermore, we characterize some loss functions for which the risk unbiased estimators of parameters of selected populations do not exist. Theoretical results are augmented with various illustrations and examples.


Many research questions in visual perception involve determining whether stimulus properties are represented and processed independently. In visual neuroscience, there is great interest in determining whether important object dimensions are represented independently in the brain. For example, theories of face recognition have proposed either completely or partially independent processing of identity and emotional expression. Unfortunately, most previous research has only vaguely defined what is meant by "independence," which hinders its precise quantification and testing. This article develops a new quantitative framework that links signal detection theory from psychophysics and encoding models from computational neuroscience, focusing on a special form of independence defined in the psychophysics literature: perceptual separability. The new theory allowed us, for the first time, to precisely define separability of neural representations and to theoretically link behavioral and brain measures of separability. The framework formally specifies the relation between these different levels of perceptual and brain representation, providing the tools for a truly integrative research approach. In particular, the theory identifies exactly what valid inferences can be made about independent encoding of stimulus dimensions from the results of multivariate analyses of neuroimaging data and psychophysical studies. In addition, commonly used operational tests of independence are re-interpreted within this new theoretical framework, providing insights on their correct use and interpretation. Finally, we apply this new framework to the study of separability of brain representations of face identity and emotional expression (neutral/sad) in a human fMRI study with male and female participants. Author Summary A common question in vision research is whether certain stimulus properties, like face identity and expression, are represented and processed independently. We develop a theoretical framework that allowed us, for the first time, to link behavioral and brain measures of independence. Unlike previous approaches, our framework formally specifies the relation between these different levels of perceptual and brain representation, providing the tools for a truly integrative research approach in the study of independence. This allows to identify what kind of inferences can be made about brain representations from multivariate analyses of neuroimaging data or psychophysical studies. We apply this framework to the study of independent processing of face identity and expression.


The recent surge in food and fuel prices has prompted countries with high dependence on food imports to try and lock in future food supplies through direct investment in agricultural production in other countries. The price surges also led to a wave of proposals to invest in biofuels investments in agricultural land. While such investment can provide large benefits, it also carries considerable risks both to investors and citizens in the locality of the investment. To ensure that investments provide broad benefits and effectively contribute to larger development outcomes, enforceable property rights and contractual agreements in many developing countries need to be strengthened. This note considers how development partners can help countries create the pre-conditions for investment and proposes a governance framework to establish minimum standards for it.


We provide a generic transformation from weakly selective secure FE to selective secure FE through an approach called hybrid functional key generation. Furthermore, our transformation preserves the compactness of the FE scheme. Additionally, we note that this transformation is much simpler than the prior work [GS16]. We consider the simplicity of the construction in this work as a positive feature and the hybrid functional key generation approach as a new method that can be applied in functional encryption schemes. Furthermore, we try to weaken the input FE scheme of our transformation to be a non-compact one instead of a fully-compact one, by additionally assuming the hardness of LWE (or Ring-LWE) assumption. We achieve this result by utilizing the FE scheme for bounded collusions with decomposable and succinct ciphertext property, which can be solely based on the LWE (or Ring-LWE) assumption. Finally we present the implications of our result, which improves previous results, in building general-purpose indistinguishability obfuscator from (well-expressed) functional encryption.


Two aircraft wings made of carbon fiber‐reinforced plastic material were inspected using the laser‐based ultrasonic propagation imaging system for the visualization of manufacturing defect and damages of debonding mode. Hypotheses of the detection mechanism of composite debonding were presented and validated through the inspection results for the bonding lines of the composite wing structures. The inspection showed that the location, shape, and size of the poor bonding defect, artificial stringer tip debonding, and real skin–spar debonding can be visualized and/or measured from the imaging results. The performance of the imaging system was found better than that of a manual ultrasonic C‐scan in terms of spatial resolution and damage detectability. Another finding from the inspection was the occurrence of skin buckling between two riveted locations. Most importantly, the presence of structural elements or features such as spars, stringers, ribs, lugs, inspection windows, and even embedded PZT elements did not adversely affect the inspection. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The paper presents ways of measuring pedestrian accessibility in urban environments and it discusses how urban form and the composition of the urban fabric (density and mix) influence the level of accessibility for any location within a city. The paper discusses different aspects in which accessibility can be considered: accessibility to and from a location; accessibility through a location, and accessibility as visibility or presence within the urban system (important for orientation and navigating through cities). The paper then demonstrates how these various types of accessibility can be measured by using a series of case studies from various cities, for which a new software tool was used. The analysis illustrates how urban form can enhance or constrain accessibility and presents other data on density and land use mix of relevance to transport and city planning (particularly in the context of mixed-use developments and what constitutes a balanced mix). Finally, the paper presents a policy suggestion to incorporate comprehensive accessibility parameters within the planning process as a tool to provide a sufficiently rich environment to offer most people the opportunity to avoid travelling by car or other modes. In a relatively indirect way, there is an aspiration, at least in the UK, to provide urban environments with higher density and more balanced mix of uses, which are expected to encourage more walking. In summary, the tools and measures presented in the paper can inform and help quantify the influence of urban design (including street layouts, density and mixture of development) on how people (pedestrians) use their environment. For the covering abstract see ITRD E124693.


For prototyping and implementing speciied systems, an operational semantics has to be provided for the used speciication language. For the speciication of information systems ECA-rules being an operational mechanism seem to be a promising basis on which prototyping and implementation can be carried out. Therefore, we present two approaches to giving an operational semantics to an object speciication language by generating ECA-rules from object speciications. We discuss several possible choices and their eeect on the resulting operational semantics.


In controlled environment experiments, a minimum of 4 hr of relative humidity ?95% per day was required for conidial production by Cercosporidium personatum, and the highest numbers of conidia were produced when lesions were subjected to daily periods of 16 or more hours of relative humidity ≥ 95%. The optimum temperature for spore production was near 20°C. In field studies, numbers of airborne conidia of C. personatum, the causal agent of peanut late leaf spot, were monitored with Burkard 7-day recording volumetric spore traps at Athens, Plains, and Tifton, Georgia, in 1986-1988. Trapping of conidia was initiated in mid-July to early August, when late leaf spot lesions were first detected. A diurnal periodicity in spore release was observed, with peak spore catches occurring between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Conidia were detected on most days during the trapping period. For the years and locations examined, duration of relative humidity ≥ 95% generally exceeded 5-hr duration each day and temperatures seldom dropped below 20°C, indicating that conditions in Georgia were generally favorable for spore production.


For a MeV gamma-ray telescope in the next generation , we developed an Electron [I]racking Compton Camera, which consists of a tracker and an absorber. The camera obtains the energy and the direction of both the scattered gamma-ray and the recoil electron, and determines both the energy and the direction of the incident gamma-ray, photon by photon. Also this camera rejects the backgrounds using the kinematics of Compton scattering. We use a pa-TPC as the tracker and the GSO:Ce pixel scintillator arrays as the absorbers. A pa-TPC is a gaseous time projection chamber, which has a high gas gain of 2 Å~ 104 and a good position resolution of nw 500 pam. Our Compton camera is expected to have a good signal to noise ratio and a good angular resolution due to a gaseous high resolution tracker. In this thesis, I reported things as below. First, in order to verify the principle of the gammaray reconstruction and the background rejection due to the Compton scattering kinematics, we constructed a prototype camera using pa-TPC fi11ing with an Ar gas. By this prototype, we obtained the images and the spectra of the gamma-rays from the radioactive sources, and measured the performance of the prototype camera. Next, in order to measure diffuse cosmic gamma--rays and atmospheric gamma-rays, we designed and constructed a flight model detector with an improvement of the detection efficiency using a Xe gas as a Compton scattering target. By this improvement, the detection eficiency was 10 times larger than that of the prototype and the FOV spread to 3 str. Finally, we loaded the flight model on a balloon, and launched on September 1 2006 as the lst flight of Sub-MeV gamma-ray Imaging Loaded-on-balloon Experiment (SMILE). The balloon reached to 35 km at altitude, and the level fiight continued during 4 hours. We succeeded in the detection of N 200 downward gamma-rays during the 3.5 hours level fiight (live time 3.0 hours). The detected photon number was consistent to the simulated one, which was nu 200 photons in 3 hours. By this balloon experiment, we succeeded in the observation of the fiuxes of diffuse gamma-ray and atmospheric gamma-ray between IOO keV and 1 MeV.


For the hole type changing with laser process parameters, a two dimensional transient finite model with characteristics of transmission and distribut ion of beam intensity for laser drilling is established. Numerical simulation research on the hole development is done. The model accounts for the spatial distribution of laser beam and the latent heat of materials phase transformation . The transient thermal field and interface evolution of the hole are showed in the computational analyses. The results show that the depth of the hole increases with the time of laser material interaction, with the drilling velocity about 1 m/ s magnitude, while the hole diameter changes little after the initial increase. The experimental results of various cross section of the hole type in different parameters are comparedwith the simulation ones, and they are in good agreement. The hole types include cylindrical type, positive cone type, and inverted cone type. The numerical simulation method calculates the penetration holes and helps to choose appropriate laser parameters.


With the increased popularity of qualitative research, researchers in counseling psychology are expanding their methodologies to include mixed methods designs. These designs involve the collection, analysis, and integration of quantitative and qualitative data in a single or multiphase study. This article presents an overview of mixed methods research designs. It defines mixed methods research, discusses its origins and philosophical basis, advances steps and procedures used in these designs, and identifies 6 different types of designs. Important design features are illustrated using studies published in the counseling literature. Finally, the article ends with recommendations for designing, implementing, and reporting mixed methods studies in the literature and for discussing their viability and continued usefulness in the field of counseling psychology.


The present invention discloses a display lifting apparatus comprising support frame, the stopper base, the supporting base, a first engaging member, a second engaging member, anyone first member, a second member, and anyone switch. The supporting frame has a bearing surface, arranged on the stopper base support surface, the carrier holder can be slidably disposed support frame. The first and second engaging members disposed on the supporting base. End of the first member is fixed to the first anyone fastening, and the other end is connected through a first constant force supporting base member. Anyone end of the second member is fixed to the second fastening member, the other end of the second connecting member through anyone supporting base. Limit switch is provided in the seat, the switch is switched to connect to a first position and a first fastening member with the first constant force actuated or is connected to a second fastening member with the second stillness a second position with the actuator. Display of the invention the lifting device can be switched by switching the switch position, it has the ability to match the load weight display is carried.


Abstract Software Process Improvement (SPI) has become the most popular approach to delivering improvements to the software product. Based on statistical process control, the underlying theme is that by understanding and defining the current state of a company' s software development processes, quality practitioners and managers can sufficiently determine and control areas within the development process to achieve improvements in the product. We support this general approach to SPI. We also believe that the people factors in SPI implementation are vital. We believe that to achieve greater success in software process improvement initiatives, greater attention needs to be paid to the perspectives and attitudes of software practitioners. However, we believe that different groups of practitioners have different experiences and attitudes towards SPI. We present preliminary evidence from our study of UK companies. We present the obstacles and motivators to successful SPI from the perspective of three groups of practitioners: strategic management, operational management and grassroots level practitioners. We find that grassroots practitioners believe that SPI generates increased workload due to the amount of documentation required by current models. We also present evidence of positive influences and motivators to SPI that we have come across in companies. We find that giving practitioners ownership of the processes to be improved encourages them to be more responsive towards the improvement programme. We draw together the common issues in the study and argue that time, financial commitment and practitioner buy-in are critical to the success of SPI programmes.


. I987b. Early hominid symbol and evolution of the human capacity. Paper prepared for the symposium "The Origins and Dispersal of Modem Humans," Cambridge, U.K. . I988a. "L'homme de Neandertal: La pensee symbolique t l'art," in L'homme de N6andertal, pp. 80-go. Dossiers Histoire et Archeologie I24. . I988b. "The species-specific evolution and contexts of the creative mind: Thinking in time," in The creative mind: Towards an evolutionary theory of discovery and innovation. Edited by C. S. Findlay and C. J. Lumsden, pp. I I6-I9. Journal of Social and Biological Sciences I I II. . I988c. "Paleolithic image," in Encyclopedia of human evolution and prehistory. Edited by I. Tattersall, E. Delson, and J. Van Couvering, pp. 42 I-29. New York: Garland Press. . I988d. Theory and methodology in the study of the Upper Paleolithic signs. Paper delivered at the First International Congress on Rock Art, Darwin, Australia, August 29-September 2. . Ig988e. "The Neanderthals and the human capacity for symbolic thought: Cognitive and problem-solving aspects of Mousterian symbol." L'homme de N6andertal: Actes du Colloque International, I986, Liege, vol. 5. Edited by M. Otte, pp. 57-9 I. Liege. . I989a. Evolution of the human capacity: The symbolic evidence. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology. Inpress. . I989b. The Neandertals and the human capacity for symbolic thought: Cognitive and problem-solving aspects of Mousterian symbol. Etudes et Recherches Arch6ologiques de l'Universit6 de Liege. In press. MORRIS, D. I962. The biology of art. London: Methuen. NARR, K. j. I964. Approaches to the religion of Early Palaeolithic man. Translated by N. E. Auer. History of Religions 4(I):I-22. NOBBS, M. F., AND R. Z. DORN. I988. Age determinations for rock varnish formations with petroglyphs. Rock Art Research 5: Io8-46. P E RI C O T, L. I 942. La cueva del Parpall6. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas. PILLARD, B. I972. "La faune des grands mammiferes du Wurmien II de la grotte de l'Hortus (Valflaunes, Herault), " in La grotte de l'Hortus (Vaiflaunes, Herault). Edited by M-A. de Lumley and Henry de Lumley, pp. I63-205. Etudes Quatemaires, Memoire I. RUSSELL, M. D. I987. Mortuary practices at the Krapina Neandertal site. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 72:38I-97. SACKETT, JAMES. I988. "The Mousterian and its aftermath: a view from the Upper Paleolithic," in Upper Pleistocene prehistory of western Eurasia. Edited by H. Dibble and A. MontetWhite, pp. 4I 3-26. Philadelphia: The University Museum. SEYFARTH, ROBERT. I986. "Vocal communication and its relation to language," in Primate societies. Edited by B. Smuts, D. Cheney, R. Seyfarth, R. Wrangham, and T. Struhsaker, pp. 4405 I. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. SOLECKI, R. S. I96I. Three adult Neandertal skeletons from Shanidar Cave, northern Iraq. Sumer I7:I7-II2. 1. I97I. Shanidar: The humanity of Neandertal man. London: Allen Lane. STRATHERN, A. J. I97I. Self-decoration i Mount Hagen. London: Duckworth. TRINKAUS, E. I983. The Shanidar Neandertals. New York: Academic Press. . I985. Cannibalism and burial at Krapina. Journal of Human Evolution I4:203-i6. WEND T, W. E. I 976. "Art mobilier" from the Apollo I I Cave, South West Africa: Africa's oldest dated works of art. South African Archaeological Bulletin 3 I: 5 -II . WETZEL, R., AND G. BOSIN4SKI. I969. Die Bocksteinschmiedeim Lonetal. Veroffentlichungen derStaatlichen Amtes fur Denkmalpflege Stuttgart, A. WHITE, J. P., WITH J. F. O'CONNELL. I982.Aprehistory of Australia, New Guinea, and Sahul. Sydney: Academic Press. WHITE, R. I982. Rethinking the Middle/Upper Paleolithic transition. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 2: 9 5-5I I . . I985. Thoughts on social relationships in hominid evolution. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 2: 95-I I 5. . I986. Toward a contextual understanding of the earliest body ornaments. Paper presented at the conference on "The Origins of Modern Human Adaptations," School of American Research, Albuquerque, N.M.


? Objective To evaluate the value of angiographic diagnosis and interventional therapy in patients with vascular trauma.

Methods The angiographic manifestations of vascular trauma were retrospectively analyzed in 53 patients, of which 25 cases underwent therapeutic embolizations. The etiology, anatomic distribution, angiographic signs in different phases and interventional therapeutic indications of vascular trauma were emphatically studied.
 Results Angiography is very valuable not only for demonstrating the precise site, status, and the features of acute vascular injuries but also showing the extravasation of the contrast medium as the blurring or interruption of injured vessels. However, the degree of the extravasation was not consistent with clinical signs and prognosis. In chronic stage, the major manifestations were pseudoaneurysm and arteriovenous fistula.
Conclusions Angiography has changed the therapeutic choice of vascular trauma. For the treatment of such vascular trauma as at the skull base, kidney, pelvis, and iliofemoral areas, interventional embolization is superior to surgical management.
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ABSTRACT General non-linear functional differential equations are considered. New explicit criteria for the exponential stability are presented. The stability criteria given in this paper include many existing results as particular cases. In particular, they unify, generalise and improve some ones published recently in [Ngoc, P. H. A. (2012). On exponential stability of non-linear differential systems with time-varying delay. Applied Mathematics Letters, 25(9), 1208–1213 and Ngoc, P. H. A. (2013b). Novel criteria for exponential stability of functional differential equations. Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 141(9), 3083–3091]. Two examples are given to show the effectiveness and advantage of the obtained results.


The effect of two concentrations of caffeine (1500 mg/ml and 2500 mg/ml) on mitotic indices of Drosophila prosaltans was analyzed in larval brain cells. Although the differences detected between treated and control cells were not significant, the percentages obtained suggest a possible effect of caffeine in slowing the process of cell division


For the past two decades, many successful applications of microbial electrochemical technologies (METs), such as bioenergy generation, environmental monitoring, resource recovery, and platform chemicals production, have been demonstrated. Despite these tremendous potentials, the scaling-up and commercialization of METs are still quite challenging. Depending on target applications, common challenges may include expensive and tedious fabrication processes, prolonged start-up times, complex design requirements and their scalability for large-scale systems. Incorporating the three-dimensional printing (3DP) technologies have recently emerged as an effective and highly promising method for fabricating METs to demonstrate power generation and biosensing at the bench scale. Notably, low-cost and rapid fabrication of complex and miniaturized designs of METs was achieved, which is not feasible using the traditional methods. Utilizing 3DP showed tremendous potentials to aid the optimization of functional large-scale METs, which are essential for scaling-up purposes. Moreover, 3D-printed bioanode could provide rapid start-up in the current generation from METs without any time lags. Despite numerous review articles published on different scientific and applied aspects of METs, as per the authors' knowledge, no published review articles explicitly highlighted the applicability and potential of 3DP for developing METs. Hence, this review targets to provide a current overview and status of 3DP applications for advancing METs and their future outlook.


Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu Tampere University of Applied Sciences Degree Programme in Business Information Systems HURSKE, ERKKA: Designing and Publishing a Mobile Game for Windows Phone 8 Bachelor's thesis 35 pages December 2015 Game industry is nowadays the fastest growing part of the entertainment industry. With modern tools the developers are able to make a game with very little resources. It may not be clear to everyone interested in game development what you must take into consideration when making a game. This thesis was made to answer this question. The purpose was to design, develop and publish a game for Windows Phone 8 and to view different aspects of the game developing process from a theoretical perspective. A simple mobile game was designed, developed and published during this thesis project. The thesis answers the following questions: what steps are involved in good game design, and what does the game design document contain? The thesis also includes the design process of the game project under examination. The game itself was made using the Unity game engine, whose features and usage are observed more closely. A developer account is needed to publish a Unity game. The thesis tells how the account is created and how the game can be published. The result was a playable and almost ready game. Some features are still missing from the game, which prevents publication of the game at this stage. These features keep the game from being published. The reader will get a general view on what needs to be taken into consideration when developing a game. Making a functional game doesn't need a big development team, it is possible to do it with just one person and a very small budget.


A very highly efficient InGaAlAs/AlGaAs quantum-well structure was designed for 808 nm emission, and laser diode chips 390-μm-wide aperture and 2-mm-long cavity length were fabricated. Special pretreatment and passivation for the chip facets were performed to achieve improved reliability performance. The laser chips were p-side-down mounted on the AlN sub-mount, and then tested at continuous wave (CW) operation with the heat-sink temperature setting to 25 °C using a thermoelectric cooler (TEC). As high as 60.5% of the wall-plug efficiency (WPE) was achieved at the injection current of 11 A. The maximum output power of 30.1 W was obtained at 29.5 A when the TEC temperature was set to 12 °C. Accelerated life-time test showed that the laser diodes had lifetimes of over 62 111 h operating at rated power of 10 W.


We employ recently developed panel data methods to estimate a model of private investment under financial restraints for 20 developing countries using annual data for 1972-2000. We show that the qualitative nature of the results varies depending on whether we take into account cross-country effects. When we allow for cross-sectional dependence, investment displays more sensitivity to world capital market conditions and exchange rate uncertainty. A perhaps even more surprising result is the finding that countries that managed to suppress domestic real interest rates without generating high inflation enjoyed higher levels of private investment than those that would have been obtained under liberalized conditions.


An improved enantioselective synthesis of protected (3S,4S)-4-amino-3,5-dihydroxypentanoic acid (ADPA) from L-serine has been developed. Enantioselectivity is improved by replacing the methyl ester with the tert-butyl ester and using neutral magnesium salt of esters to give β-keto ester.


s are available online only, free of charge, at www.karger.com/doi/10.1159/000512974 Selected Abstracts from the 38th Vicenza Course on AKI & CRRT A week of virtual meetings


The continuing expansion of Internet media consumption has increased traffic volumes, and hence congestion, on access links. In response, both mobile and wireline ISPs must either increase capacity or perform traffic engineering over existing resources. Unfortunately, provisioning timescales are long, the process is costly, and single-homing means operators cannot balance across the last mile. Inspired by energy and transport networks, we propose demand-side management of users to reduce the impact caused by consumption patterns out-pacing that of edge network provision. By directly affecting user behaviour through a range of incentives, our techniques enable resource management over shorter timescales than is possible in conventional networks. Using survey data from 100 participants we explore the feasibility of introducing the principles of demand-side management in today's networks.


Law shapes everyday life of ordinary people and their relations through governing both material and psychological rights and duties ``of`` and ``among`` people. Therefore, it is significant to analyse law of a country as it suggests the answer to the people at the time of decision in every day life. It is especially true in the case of family law since it rules decisions not only of individuals but also of families with regard to binding and breaking of social relations through marriage and divorce. This is a comparative study of the project that examines ``Islamic Family Law, Possibilities of Reform from a Women`s Rights Perspective, A Study through Changes of the Family Law in Qatar, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey``. The aim of the study is to explore how ordinary Muslims in each country recognize Islamic family law in everyday life and how they practice it. The target group of this study is at least 100 of each female and male married Muslim from middle- and upper-class in each country and they were approached by snowball sampling except Turkey where the target group was approached randomly in a big Supermarket in Ankara. The questionnaire consists mainly with three parts: marriage, divorce, and possibilities of reform in the family law. Among the three major issues, this paper will largely focus on the analysis of ``divorce part`` and it deals with reasons of divorce, amount of deferred mahr and its payment at the time of divorce, problems following divorce, women`s right to divorce, and parental rights after divorce.


Provides that on or after June 30, 1973, no import quota or other nontariff trade restriction shall be imposed by or pursuant to law with respect to the importation into the United States of petroleum and petroleum products. (Amends 19 U.S.C. 1862)


We investigate whether tournament prizes that depend on joint output ("variable prize tournaments") can alleviate the sabotage problem which is otherwise inherent in tournament structures. In a game-theoretical model with three contestants, we compare fixed-prize tournaments with tournaments where prizes depend on contestants' joint output. Our analysis suggests that the incentives to sabotage in a fixed-prize tournament may be counteracted in a variable-prize tournament such that contestants no longer sabotage, but help one another. We empirically test the implications of our model with the help of a classroom experiment where we compare participants' choices in a fixed-prize treatment () with those of a variable-prize treatment () in a between-subjects design. Given our parametrization, we expect efforts to be identical in both treatments, and we expect sabotage in the treatment and no sabotage in the treatment. In accordance with the model, we find that participants in the fixed-prize tournament sabotage one another, whereas participants in the variable-prize tournament help one another. At the same time, participants' effort levels do not vary between the two treatments.


OBJECTIVE:To evaluate economic effectiveness of 2 kinds of therapy in the treatment of upper gastrointestinal bleeding.METHODS:228 patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding were either treated with Ranitidine,Omeprazole sodium for injection and Etamsylate(group A) or Omeprazole enteric coated tablets,Almagate suspension and Etamsylate(B group) in our hospital from Jan.2008 to Sept.2009.Clinical efficacies of 2 groups were observed and cost-effectiveness analysis of two groups was conducted using pharmacoeconomics.RESULTS:Clinical efficacy(E) of group A and group B were 98.97% and 99.98%,there was no statistical difference between 2 groups(P0.05);the costs of treatment(C) were 499.80 yuan and 660.38 yuan;cost-effectiveness(C/E) were 5.05 and 6.60.CONCLUSION:2 groups show same clinical efficacy but the cost of group A is lower than that of group B.The therapy of group A is optimal to treat upper gastrointestinal bleeding.


In board game playing, many endgames may be solved based on dynamic programming (DP) with value-to-go functions that evaluate each state towards final winning positions. We first identify all positions to win in one move; next, recognize the next set of positions to win in two moves; and then do so in three moves, and so on. In this way, the sets of constant values (moving towards winning) are produced sequentially. This observation motivates our interest in what class of board game problems does the computation of starting points of constant value work efficiently. Furthermore, certain situations may arise repeatedly during the play; this corresponds to a problem where some values on the right-hand side of Bellman's DP optimality equation are unknown when the specific value function on the left-hand side is evaluated. To resolve this issue, one may typically employ Bellman's successive approximation procedure directly on a whole large problem, but we could exploit the aforementioned observation; that is, we organize the procedure in a sequentially stagewise fashion, starting with an initial smallest sub-problem to final outcome; then, advance to the next smallest local sub-problem, using approximate solutions of the previous sub-problems. Proceed in this manner until the desired problem scale is reached. We demonstrate this local-search idea (called staged successive approximation procedures) in a two-player board game found in the literature.


An old and incompletely worked-out problem in bacteriology is the nature of heat injury in bacteria, and the elucidation of the factors involved in the thermal resistance of endospores. The greatest advances have been made in determining those eonditions in the external environment of the spore which influence the ability to resist heat. Much less progress is evident in isolating the factors within the cell. The present paper presents some data which suggest a relation between the maximum growth temperature of a bacter-ial species and the capaeity of that species and its spores to survive heat injury. Physiologically considered, the relationship is an entirely logical one as the mechanism for thermal resistance should be expected to be more efficient in the ease of an organism able to grow at high temperatures. The validity of such a generalization would be substantiated if the rule were found to function for vegetative cells. A body of data already exists whieh permits analysis. Sherman (1937) has summarized information coneerning streptoeocci and gives data on the ability to grow at 450C. and 10°C. and to tolerate heating at 60°C. for 30 minutes. His data reveal that the streptocoeci which resist heating at 60°C. for 30 minutes are those which ean grow at 45°C. The pyogenic streptoeocei are interesting in this connection as all except some strains of the "H" group are not able to grow at 450C. And it is only among the "H" members of the pyogenic streptococci that strains are found within the group which r-esist heating for 30 minutes at 60'C. The enterococcus species are the most heat-resistant and also those most able to grow at 45°C. Of all the str-eptococci, Strcptococcucls thcrmophilus is most successful in tolerating pasteurization temperaturi es. It is significant that this same species, growing readily at 50°C., has the highest maximum. The lactic group constitutes an exception. They do not grow at 45'(C. and yet withstand heating fairly well. But the rule seems to hold within the group as Streptococcus lactis, which grows at 40°C., is more heat resistant than Streptococcus cremoris, not capable of growth at the same temperature. Psychrophilic bacteria are the least resistant of all bacterial forms and lend weight to the knowledge that maximum growth temperature correlates with heat resistance. Zobell and C(onn (1940) have shown that marine bacteria possess low thermal death times, so low in fact, that plating temperatures (42-45°C.) too long prolonged destroy them in great numbers and decrease


Tool kit for exchanging tools at least partially enclosed area is provided. The tool kit, each tool is preferably provided within the tubular housing, and pivoted so that it can be attached to the receiving equipment has become out of the tool kit, comprising at least one tool. Tool is returned to implement the kit after use, if necessary, adapted to be switched to a different tool. In one embodiment, surgical system that enables the surgical instrument can be exchanged in the body of a patient is provided. How to Replace a surgical instrument in the body of the patient is also provided.


UNLABELLED
The purpose of this work is to provide the modern molecular geneticist with tools to perform more efficient and more accurate analysis of the genotype data they produce. By using Microsoft Excel macros written in Visual Basic, we can translate genotype data into a form readable by the versatile software 'Arlequin', read the Arlequin output, calculate statistics of linkage disequilibrium, and put the results in a format for viewing with the software 'GOLD'.

AVAILABILITY
The software is available by FTP at: ftp://xcsg.iarc.fr/cox/Genotype_Transposer/.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
Detailed instruction and examples are available at: ftp://xcsg.iarc.fr/cox/Genotype&_Transposer/. Arlequin is available at: http://lgb.unige.ch/arlequin/. GOLD is available at: http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/asthma/GOLD/.


Abstract This chapter is devoted to the analysis of solutions of linear rational-expectations models. Successively introducing various types of expectations (perfect, naive, adaptive, and rational) in the Muth model, the final reduced forms and the linear stationary solutions are compared. The main solution techniques for rational-expectations models are reviewed on the Cagan model. The "non-uniqueness problem" is also discussed. The reduced form of a very general linear model is given and the linear stationary solutions are parametrically described. The parameters have a simple interpretation and allow for statistical applications. Finally, a generalization to multivariate rational-expectations models is given. If no invertibility conditions are imposed on the structural coefficient matrices, the solution techniques used in the univariate case become insufficient. A method is suggested to obtain the general solution of a multivariate model and to characterize the dimension of the solutions space. Introduction The problem of modeling the mechanism by which economic agents form their expectations is fundamental in macroeconomic theory. In many models, it is essential to include expectations of future variables. However, such expectations are often unobservable. Therefore, assumptions on their formation are needed to complete the specification. The rational-expectation hypothesis was introduced in a seminal paper by Muth (1961). Several years later the assumption was incorporated in many macromodels (e.g., Sargent and Wallace 1975, 1976; Lucas 1976; Taylor 1979). In these models, expectations are optimal predictions given all the available information. Rational expectations are thus based on an information set that may be chosen by the model builder.


Abstract : The symposium was organized to address recent developments in the area of nanoscale semiconducting and metallic structures with emphasis on ultrasmall clusters and their potential for device applications. Papers were presented on (1) silicon nanostructures, (2) porous silicon, (3) quantum dot structures, (4) excitons in nanostructures, (5) self ordered nanostructures and clusters, (6) quantum devices, (7) architectures, and (8) circuits.


Objective To assess the risk factors for pneumonia in patients with acute stroke. Methods Three hundred and forty patients with acute stroke were studied,and risk factors for pneumonia such as demographics,history of hypertension,diabetes and smoking,initial blood pressure,body temperature,fasting plasma glucose level,C-reactive protein,National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale(NIHSS) scores,degree of dysphagia and mechanical ventilation were evaluated.Besides,the correlation between incidence of pneumonia and pneumonia scores in patients with acute stroke was studied. Results Pneumonia was developed in 63 patients(18.5%).Logistic regression analysis revealed that age,gender,initial NIHSS scores,dysphagia and mechanical ventilation were independent predictors for pneumonia(P0.05).The incidence of pneumonia gradually increased with the pneumonia scores. Conclusion The occurrence of pneumonia after acute stroke is associated with older age,male gender,high NIHSS scores,dysphagia and mechanical ventilation.The pneumonia scores can be adopted to identify the risks of pneumonia after acute stroke.


In the last decades, education has been supported by technology in order to reach more people and produce significant benefits to teaching and learning. Part of the success of technology and education is due to the capacity technology can adapt teaching and learning to different contexts. More recently, we noticed an increase in the use of game elements (gamification) in educational environments, which intends to promote students' engagement and, consequently, improve their learning experience. However, we do not know if the use of these elements brings the promised results. In this paper, we conducted an observational analysis focusing in XP (experience points) and Badges, checking their correlation with the students learning, in order to investigate the influence of these gamification elements.


Modern automation and robotization of production processes requires new and fast methods of product quality control. In the case of arc welding in robotic systems, where the production process takes place in large series, it is important to quickly control the correctness of the weld. Based on visual data, the system should be able to automatically determine whether a given weld meets the basic quality requirements, and thus be able to stop the process in the event of identified defects. The article presents the results of research on the creation of a visual method for assessing the correctness of the weld seam based on the deep neural network classifying, locating and segmenting welding defects. The proposed detection method was extended by using a combination of a vision system camera with a six-axis industrial robot in order to enable detection of a larger number of welding defects and positioning in a six-dimensional workspace. The research results presented in this article were obtained during the implementation of the project entitled "Development of a method based on the use of deep neural networks for visual inspection of welded joints in the course of R&D works" implemented at the company ZAP-Robotyka Sp. z o.o. in Ostrów Wielkopolski.


The aim of the paper is to answer the question to what degree the attractiveness of living in a particular district is reflected in the value of a given area. In this paper, it was undertaken to compare the attractiveness of the districts of Warsaw (information obtained from the study of MSO) to their value (assessed on the basis of the econometric model of apartment prices).


There are no simple yardsticks to measure the contribution of foreign-born scientists to the biomedical research enterprise in America. Ideally, we should be able to take a listing of all papers in the life sciences originating from laboratories located in the U.S. and published in the last twenty or thirty years, and then let a computer figure out what percentage of the authors listed on these publications was born outside the U.S. Of course, this is not a realistic option because publications do not reveal the places of their authors' births. To get some objective measure of the contribution of foreign-born scientists to U.S. biomedical research, we analyzed the list of all Nobel Prizes in Medicine and Physiology awarded between 1901 and 2005 (1, 2). The total number of winners and co-winners of this prize from the U.S. is 87. (Parenthetically, there is a much higher proportion of Americans among the winners after 1950 than in the first half of the 20th century: we counted a total 11 U.S. winners between 1901 and1949, and 76 between 1950 and 2005. This is undoubtedly a reflection of the growing importance of the U.S. biomedical research enterprise after World War II.) For the purpose of our analysis, it is noteworthy that at least 27 of the 87 American Nobel Prize winners—over thirty percent—were born outside the U.S.! This count includes individuals who were not U.S nationals but lived permanently in this country at the time they had produced the work for which they received the Nobel Prize (e.g., the immunologist Susumu Tonegawa, who is usually considered Japanese, the Italian biologist, Rita Levi-Montalcini, and Swedish-born Torsten Wiesel). Not included in the count are Nobel Prize winners who had moved to this country after completion of the work for which they were honored. The latter category includes Albert Szent-Györgyi, the Hungarian-born discoverer of vitamin C, who had received the Prize in 1937, but moved to the U.S. in 1947. Other examples are Sir Paul Nurse, the British 2001 Nobel Prize recipient who has recently become President of The Rockefeller University in New York City, and the immunologist Peter Doherty, co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize for work done in Australia in the early 1970s, who subsequently moved to the U.S. With the latter individuals included, more than one in three Nobel Prize


The considerable research already conducted on the second Sino-Japanese War of 1937–1945 has mainly addressed military and diplomatic affairs, though research on relevant cultural and even medical history has gradually picked up pace in recent years (Watt 2011 [2013?]; Keith 2011). However, most of the research on modern Chinese medical history, especially traditional Chinese medicine, has little to do with war (Pi 2020). Let me start with a brief review of some related literature. Social historians of medicine in the West have focused much on the effects of war on civilian medicine in general and upon medical policy in particular. Mark Harrison, for example, comments on the processes of both the "medicalization of war," or how medical personnel were incorporated into the armed forces, and the ensuing "militarization of medicine," whereby the former process affected the practice of medicine (Harrison 1996). How these processes developed in the case of China, with its long history of traditional Chinese medicine, is only beginning to be researched. As we shall see, the field of medicine in China had a very different relationship to these processes, particularly during the Second World War. For example, Michael Shiyung Liu has recently raised the issue of "Chinese physique" in a study on Chinese military nutrition (Liu 2019). Interestingly, this concept had existed in Chinese medicine as early as the confrontation with Western medicine in the 1920s. However, there is a lack of in-depth discussion within the academic community about the history and impact of Chinese medicine upon the medicalization of war and the militarization of medicine. If the war had such a positive impact on the development of Western medicine, then what was the impact of war on traditional Chinese practices? The purpose of this note, therefore, is to explore the actions of practitioners of Chinese medicine in dealing with the urgent need that arose from the Sino-Japanese War for surgery and for the modification of Chinese medicine.


Various external and internal factors such as atmospheric inputs and catchment characteristics, e.g. soil and vegetation cover, influence stream water geochemistry. In the Swiss Alps, shrubs (e.g. Alnus viridis subsp. viridis, Sorbus aucuparia, Calluna vulgaris, Salix appendiculata, Rhododendron ferrugineum) are encroaching into formerly open habitats and the effects of the latter on the catchment and hillslope scale hydrology and stream water geochemistry have not been investigated so far. The shrub encroachment might affect soil hydrological properties, which in turn could influence runoff generation. Moreover, alder species (Alnus spp.) are known to affect chemical soil properties and can therefore alter the export of nutrients via stream water.
Therefore, the hydrological and geochemical behavior of four alpine headwater sub catchments, which differ in vegetation and soil cover characteristics, were investigated. The aim was to gain information on water flow paths and export of nutrients during base flow, rainfall and snowmelt conditions at the micro catchment scale. Subsurface water flow paths at the hillslope scale were also investigated.
First, the influence of vegetation cover on mean transit times of water (MTT) was assessed. The MTT of water in a catchment provides important information about storage, flow paths, sources of water and thus also about retention and release of solutes in a catchment. MTTs between 70 to 102 weeks were calculated via time series of water stable isotopes using a convolution integral method. The high temporal variation of the stable isotope signals in precipitation was strongly dampened in stream base flow samples. This pointed to deeper flow paths and mixing of waters of different ages at the catchments' outlets, which was supported by additional geochemical stream water data (e.g. Ca and Si). The study with four sub catchments suggests that MTTs are neither related to topographic indices nor vegetation cover. Water balance calculations and the geochemical data suggest that the major part of the quickly infiltrating precipitation likely percolates through fractured and partially karstified deeper rock zones. This process increases the control of bedrock flow paths on MTT.
In a next step, the water pathways at two steep hillslopes were tracked, since they strongly affect runoff generation processes and therefore control water geochemistry on the short term scale. Soil water stable isotope profiles, which offer a time-integrating overview of subsurface hydrological processes, were used. Furthermore, an advection-dispersion model was applied to simulate the delta18O profiles. The variability of delta18O values with depth within each profile and a comparison of the simulated and measured profiles revealed that vertical downward subsurface flow plays an important role, even at high slope angles. Lateral subsurface flow was also observed in deeper soil layers and at sites near a small stream. Physical soil data further supported the fast percolation of water towards deeper soil layers, from where it can subsequently recharge to the fractured bedrock, which led to the aforementioned strong dampening of stable isotope signals in base flow stream water.
Finally, the study focused on the hydrological and geochemical processes on the short term scale, i.e. a rainfall event in the growing season and a spring snowmelt period. The hydrological and geochemical differences in the sub catchments were assessed. Stream water was sampled at hourly intervals during the rainfall event and on a daily basis during the snowmelt period. Stream geochemistry was strongly influenced by the land cover, i.e. soil and shrub cover. Riparian wetland soils were flushed by a high proportion of event water, which increased dissolved organic carbon export during the rainfall event and the snowmelt period. A slight increase in nitrate export during the rainfall event was likely due to the encroachment of green alder shrubs.
In conclusion, the bedrock geology and geochemistry was mainly controlling stream water geochemistry on the hydrological long term scale, i.e. during base flow conditions. The soil properties in the investigated valley allow vertical downward flow of water within soil profiles even at steep slopes, and facilitate recharge of water to deeper zones and subsequently to the bedrock. The differences in vegetation and soil cover characteristics were most notably observed on the hydrological short term scale, when stream water geochemistry was highly variable. The connection of the shallow soil layers, which act as a "reservoir" for biogeochemical reactions, with the streams is mostly activated during rainfall and snowmelt events. Since duration of snow cover will be shortened and rainfall events during the growing season will become more frequent and intense due to climatic changes, the importance of vegetation and soil characteristics for the export of nutrients might still increase in the future.


Speleotourism tourism is a special form of tourism, part of the broader category of geotourism. In Greece, despite the vast speleological wealth, the...


It is known that human vision system mis-perceives the grey scale profile of an image in Fig.1(a), which is cubic diagram in Fig.1(b), as for that in Fig.1(c). This optical illusion emphasizing edges of the object is called Mach-effect. We proposed a novel retinal model capable of simulating the Mach-effect. The model was composed of a rod cell layer, a bipolar cell layer, and a ganglion cell layer as shown in Fig.2, according to anatomical structure of the retina. Lateral inhibition network and perceptive field network were introduced between the layers, respectively. Photoelectric conversion at a rod cell for a single photon incidence was defined as equation (1), and the outputs of the rod cell (vrod), the bipolar cell (vbpl), and the ganglion cell (vgngl) were calculated using equation (2)~(5).


Pristine and modified/doped titania are still some of the most widely investigated photocatalysts due to its high activity, stability, abundance and proper redox properties to carry out various reactions. However, modifiers and/or dopants resulting in visible-light activity might be expensive or work as recombination centers under UV irradiation. It seems that defective titania, known as "self-doped" TiO2, might be the best solution since it can be obtained under mild conditions without the addition of expensive materials and methods. This review discusses various methods of defective titania preparation, characterization of defect types, their localization (surface vs. bulk) and their function, as well as proposed mechanisms of photocatalytic reactions in the presence of self-doped titania. Although many kinds of defective titania samples have already been prepared with different colors, color intensities and defect kinds (mainly Ti3+ and oxygen vacancies), it is difficult to conclude which of them are the most recommended as the preparation conditions and activity testing used by authors differ. Furthermore, activity testing under solar radiation and for dyes does not clarify the mechanism since bare titania can also be excited and sensitized, respectively, in these conditions. In many reports, authors have not considered the possible influence of some impurities originated from the synthesis method (e.g., H, Al, Zn, Cl, F) that could co-participate in the overall mechanism of photocatalytic reactions. Moreover, some reports indicate that defective titania, especially black ones, might decrease activity since the defects might work as recombination centers. Despite some unproven/unclear findings and unanswered questions, there are many well-conducted studies confirmed by both experimental and theoretical studies that defective titania might be a promising material for various photocatalytic reactions under both UV and visible-light irradiation. Based on available literature, it could be proposed that optimal defects' concentration, the preferential role of surface defects, a higher surface-to-bulk ratio of defects in rutile than in anatase, and the beneficial impact of disordered surface are the most important aspects to be considered during the preparation of defective titania.


We discuss a precise method for measuring mode widths and positions in an optical resonator. This technique quantifies absorption and dispersion of light caused by an absorbing gas or by losses in the resonator optics.


This paper examines the ways in which a group of middle class second generation Bangladeshi adults construct and account for their experiences of racism. Using a discursive analysis of tape recorded conversations, the study shows how various discursive practices construct racism in participant's descriptions of racist experiences, and how these constructions serve particular functions. For instance, the discourses of an 'improved present' and 'racism as present but hidden' are identified. In these discourses, I argue, racism is constructed as a problem of the past and therefore only a comparatively minor problem at present, or as present phenomenon, but manifesting itself in more subtle covert forms. I argue that these discourses may be considered as problematic in that they can be seen as potentially sustaining and perpetuating particular kinds of social relations. What I also wish to argue is that this kind of analysis demonstrates the need for a theorization of the subject. In this case, the need for racism to be understood from the perspective of these middle class second generation Bangladeshis. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In order to characterize the neural control of the circulation in an organism undergoing a rapid somatic growth, we compared the arterial baroreceptor reflex in two groups of male Wistar rats anesthetized with urethane. The first group consisted of 36 rats of 6-7 weeks old, known to exhibit the greatest rate of increase of the body weight during the life span, whereas the second group consisted of 30 full-grown rats of 20-22 weeks old. When arterial pressure was controlled by phenylephrine or nitroglycerin, the reflex change in renal nerve activity was elicited over the arterial pressure range 15-30 mmHg lower than that of full-grown rats. The difference was attributable partly, but not exclusively, to the lower operating range of arterial baroreceptors in the former groups. Although no difference was observed between the two groups with respect to the reflex fall in arterial pressure in response to graded electrical stimulation of the aortic nerve, the accompanying bradycardia was significantly smaller in 6-7 weeks old rats primarily due to the difference in the vagally mediated component of the reflex response. In conclusion, the arterial baroreceptor reflex of growing rats, as compared to full-grown counterparts, is characterized by deviation of the operating range of arterial baroreceptors as well as the arterial baroreceptor reflex itself to lower arterial pressure range and poor development of the vagally mediated reflex bradycardia. (J. Physical Fitness Japan 1985, 34, Supplement: 131•`140) key words: growing rats, neural control of circulation, arterial baroreceptor reflex, bradycardia, cardiac vagus


The objective – to evaluate the dynamics and prognostic value of inflammatory markers and other laboratory parameters in the blood of patientswith COVID-19 and to assess the severity of the course and mortality in this disease.   Materials and Methods. The clinical and laboratory data of 819 patients with COVID-19 treated in a hospital were retrospectively analyzed. In 700 (85.5 %) patients, the disease occurred in a moderate form, these patients were recovered. Patients with severe course (n = 119) were treated in the intensive care unit, of which 47 (39.5 %) patients had a favorable outcome and 72 (60.5 %) patients died. All patients underwent clinical, biochemical (including IL-6) and coagulological studies at admission and in dynamics. The concentration of IL-1ß, IL-8, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor TNF-α were additionally measured in patients with severe COVID-19.   Results. Initially, patients with severe disease, compared with moderate, had higher levels of C-reactive protein (p < 0.001), LDH (p = 0,007), D-dimers (p = 0.028), fibrinogen (p = 0.014), the number of white blood cells (p = 0.018), as well as lower levels of albumin (p < 0.001). In the group of patients with fatal outcome, higher levels of LDH (p = 0.008), creatinine (p = 0.009), urea (p < 0.001), troponin (p = 0.024), D-dimers (p = 0.002), fibrinogen (p = 0.009), the relative content of immature leukocytes (p = 0.004), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (p = 0.022) were found than in survivors. On the 7th day of hospitalization, an acute increase in ferritin, urea, D-dimers, LDH, interleukins was noted in the group of deceased patients. Using the observer's operating curves method, predictors of an unfavorable outcome in COVID-19 were determined: IL-10 above 9.46 pg/ml (area under the ROC curve AUC = 0.902), urea above 6.6 mmol/L (AUC = 0.815), TNF-α above 12.6 pg/ml (AUC = 0.799), C-reactive protein above 59.6 mg/L (AUC = 0.714), LDH above 348 U/L (AUC = 0.702), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio above 4.94 (AUC = 0.700), IL-6 above 62.2 pg/ml (AUC = 0.686), ferritin above 772 μg/L (AUC = 0.654).   Conclusions. Baseline levels of LDH, D-dimers, and fibrinogen have a discriminatory ability to determine both the severity and the outcome of COVID-19. The severity of the inflammatory response upon admission correlates with the severity of the disease, but has no prognostic value. At the time of admission, patients with an unfavorable outcome already have initial manifestations of organ dysfunction (assessed by creatinine, urea, and troponin levels). On the 7th day of hospitalization, the relationship of values and the outcome appears in ferritin and interleukin 6. The presence of a strong correlation between the levels of interleukins IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, TNF-α makes it possible to measure any of them.


Main problem of the international economy, nowadays, is how to achieve a satisfactory degree of harmonization between international politics and monetary policies of various countries. The Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted in 2008 the National Program for Integration into the European Union (NPI), which defines the obligations of the Government and individual ministries in the process of European integration and the activities to be undertaken. The paper consists of following chapters: European integration and alignment with the acquits in the EU sustainable development; National strategies for sustainable development in Serbia; Application of the concept of sustainable development throughout enterprises in Serbia. The Paper presents not only the topical themes of the Strategy for Sustainable development applied in Serbia, but its implementation through the cases of business enterprises as well, all, in pursuit of preserving and creating Serbian economy more competitive. Examples of application of the strategy of sustainable development policies in the Republic of Serbia in this paper are the product of best practice companies, which in most cases are the results of FDI flows.


Bitcoin is electronic money appeared in 2009 developed by Nakamoto Satoshi. WIth blockchain, the distributed opend account book, it is possible to have deal with no central control and no double payment. Bitcoin get recognition as digital money globally. FBI put bitcoin seized from 'Silk Road' which is cyber black market at auction, and Japan amend the law of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is mined by mining, and it is usually worked by ASIC in nowdays. WIth ASIC a few miner got strong mining capablity, and it is threatening distributed blockchain. In this paper, with analysis of problem of mining bitcoin using ASIC and with advance of GPU capablity, researchers suggest GPU mining. Also, with comparison of mining capability between ASIC and GPU, researcher shows that home computer has enough mining capability. Received (February 27, 2017), Review Result (March 14, 2017) Accepted (March 21, 2017), Published (May 31, 2017) 06978 Graduate School of Software, Soonsil University, Seoul, Korea email: email@example.com (Corresponding Author) 06978 Graduate School of Software, Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea email: email@example.com Comparison of Mining Capability between ASIC Mining and GPU Mining Copyright c 2017 HSST 830 With result of comparison, researchers show that home computer users can participate in mining. As a result, the size of mining pool become bigger, and possibility of falsification of blockchain become smaller.


Further closure of water recovery systems will be necessary for future long duration human exploration missions. NASA's Space Technology Roadmap for Human Health, Life Support and Habitation Systems specified a milestone to advance water management technologies during the 2015 to 2019 timeframe to achieve 98% H2O recovery from a mixed wastewater stream containing condensate, urine, hygiene, laundry, and water derived from waste. This goal can only be achieved by either reducing the amount of brines produced by a water recovery system or by recovering water from wastewater brines. NASA convened a Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) on the topic of Water Recovery from Brines (WRB) that was held on January14-15th, 2014 at Johnson Space Center. Objectives of the TIM were to review systems and architectures that are sources of brines and the composition of brines they produce, review the state of the art in NASA technology development and perspectives from other industries, capture the challenges and difficulties in developing brine processing hardware, identify key figures of merit and requirements to focus technology development and evaluate candidate technologies, and identify other critical issues including microgravity sensitivity, and concepts of operation, safety. This paper represents an initial summary of findings from the workshop.


The present study aims to identify the consequences of changing organizational behavior to environmental issues on individuals, from the Theory of Planned Behavior, in view of a unit of managing people in a public institution of higher education in Pernambuco State, Brazil. The used approach qualitative and the method of verification the case study, in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 employees of the institution analyzed, which represents a sample of 25% of the total amount, they were analyzed from the perspective of the analysis content. The discussions indicate that with the implementation of the EA project and a stimulus to change institutional practices, there was a positive pre-disposition of servers to social and environmental issues, as well as a tendency to influence the socio-environmental behavior on inserted individuals in considering their influence on developed practices and incorporated in this context.


Expanding on recent debates in environmental governance and political science, we show that the relationship between environmental transparency and public accountability is far from linear and politically neutral. This is particularly true in moments of environmental crises, when transparency regimes are most likely to emerge as an integral part of the palette of blame-avoidance strategies of accountors in their attempt to disqualify accountees' perceptions of environmental harm and irreparable loss. Drawing upon the study of blame-avoidance strategies in political science, we discuss the emergence and evolution over time of deforestation monitoring in Brazil, a transparency regime based on GIS and remote sensing led by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research since 1989. We arrive at three conclusions. First, the evolution of transparency regimes is conflictual, culturally embedded, and emergent. Second, the relation between accountors and accountees changes over time as blame-avoidance strategies unfold. Finally, solutions in a blame game may cause a future crisis, as the social context changes and becomes incompatible with the transparency regime of the day. Based on these considerations, we argue for the need to understand the instrumental dimension of transparency regimes alongside their normative and substantive dimensions.


Although conflict and partisanship are deeply entrenched in the public's view of the U.S. Congress, political scientists have noted that consensus characterizes much of the legislative branch's operations. We build on an expanding literature that moves beyond a focus on roll call voting and explore individual bills as the unit of analysis in an attempt to obtain an accurate picture of the broader context in which House decision making occurs. Drawing on evidence spanning 24 years, we document the extent to which consensus rather than conflict typifies House decision making. Our bill-level analysis facilitates a unique examination of the context in which committees operate as well as the ensuing floor environment. The results provide insight into the factors attending to the degree of consensus and conflict associated with bills—particularly the salience of the issue and the committee of origin—while painting a more complete picture of the day-to-day environment of the U.S. House.


ABSTRACT This paper describes the development, evaluation, and the changes made to a research course for part-time Master of Science students in accounting. The course prepares students for their Master of Science thesis and aims to develop their research skills. On top of this, it managed to overcome barriers between faculty members who were chiefly involved in teaching, and those who mainly conducted research. In the course, students work in teams, closely supervised by faculty members, and go through a research process that ends with the preparation of a research paper. The course consists of 10 steps, which are described and critically discussed. Evaluation scores indicate that students appreciate the course and experience a steep learning curve. Faculty members also experience benefits, despite the extensive preparation time involved.


Speech is usually characterized as voiced, unvoiced or transient forms. Voiced speech is produced by an air flow of pulses caused by the vibration of the vocal cords. The resulting signal could be defined as quasiperiodic waveform with high energy and high adjacent sample correlation. The two broad categories of pitch-estimation algorithms are time-domain algorithms and frequency-domain algorithms. Voice morphing is the process of producing intermediate or hybrid voices between the utterances of two speakers. It can also be defined as the procedure of gradually transforming the voice of one speaker to that of another. Like image morphing, speech morphing aims to preserve the shared characteristics of the starting and final signals, while generating a smooth transition among them. This paper discusses Voice Conversion technique based on Pitch Synchronization Over-Lap Add (PSOLA) algorithm has been developed in MATLAB. In order to estimate the overall performance of implemented algorithm, Quality factor (Q) and Resemblance factor (R) have been selected and analyzed for different speech corpus of both genders.


In the famous inscription of the Cylinder of Cyrus the Great composed after thefallofBabylonin539BC,thefounderofthePersianempireisreferredtoas "king of the city of Anshan" and is made to indicate that this title was equally borne by his ancestors, Cambyses, Cyrus andTeispes.Referencetothevenerable–butnonethelessElamiteandtoallappearances nolongerpoliticallyimportantatthetime–cityofAnshaninCyrus'royalfami- lytitularyhastriggeredmuchscholarlydiscussion.Itiscurrentlythoughtthat thereferencestoCyrus'dynasticassociationwithAnshanmightacknowledge somesenseofanElamiteaffinityonthepartofCyrus'royalline.Thepresentstudyarguesthatthetitle"kingofthecityofAnshan"ofCyrus and his forebears was meant to accommodate traditional perceptions of "le- gitimate kingship" within a native Mesopotamian/Elamite environment and cannot be used as evidence for an Elamite affiliation of Cyrus' dynasticline.


The utility model belongs to the field of medical apparatus and particularly relates to a hard laser cystoscope system comprising a hard cystoscope, and a cold light source mainframe, a camera shooting mainframe, and a monitor which are connected with the hard cystoscope. A laser knife operation device for coordination treatment and a laser knife system mainframe used together with the laser knife operation device are further arranged on the hard cystoscope. The hard laser cystoscope system combines the cystoscope technology and the laser technology, and can be a separated type and an integrated type; and since the laser knife technology has the benefit that high energy and highly concentrated power can be generated within a short time, the hard laser cystoscope system can choose lasers adaptable to wavelength according to the pathological change property, to ablate and irradiate tumor in the bladder cavity, perform hemostatic operation to incisions, and the like. By introducing advanced laser knife technology into the cystoscope operations and organically combining the two together, the diagnosis of the cystoscope and the treatment of laser jointly attribute to smooth laser knife incision, less bleeding, and low probability of infection, thereby effectively improving cure rate and accuracy of operations, reducing rate of relapse, improving medical quality and safety, and obtaining unforeseen diagnosis and treatment effects.


Xinzhuang pressured gravity water transportation pipes system in South-to-North Water Transfer Project is located in Henan.The total length of Xinzhuang pipes system is about 212 km with the capacity of 860 000 m3/d.It is a typical long distance,large flow,pressured gravity water transportation pipes system.The pipes cost is a large proportion in investment.To save the investment,a mathmatic model is established for Xinzhuang pipes system.The model's objective function is the amount of pipes material consumed,and the constraint condition is the water supply capacity.The diameters of pipes are optimized by using the nonlinear programming method.These results are very useful for the project design.